Marketing Letter - ❌ Forbes Gets Clapped

GM nerds,

Welcome back to the newsletter that’s looking at Forbes getting clapped like:

Here’s what’s good this week:

→ The Future of SEO 🔮
→ Forbes Gets Clapped ❌
→ Is Google’s MFI Just Chrome? 👀
→ Google in its "Most Volatile Era" Ever 💀
→ more, obviously 💬

But first…

​This Week's Video 🗣️🎙️​

In today's video, I share insights into what it means to be a Local Guide, including how I’ve leveraged my experiences to generate a significant income. Whether you’re just curious or looking to maximize your potential, my journey offers a unique perspective. Tune in.

​YouTube​​

What’s Going Down @ Google 📊

→ This Phase II of Google's Mobile-First Indexing is just Chrome video is pretty wild. Basically, research by @Suzzicks suggests that Google has been utilizing Chrome for MFI and user signals— this means that Google uses Chrome to crawl and also capture user data for ads and other services. It’s also summarized here in this Search Engine Land article, which highlights a few potential SEO implications of her findings:

- We now understand why “if a page has links that never get clicked, Google is less likely to crawl it”
- “Real user engagement is likely factoring in more than previously thought”
- “Manipulation of SERP and click information is a significant vulnerability, if it happens in Chrome”
- “Actual user rendering is critical, so selective serving for GoogleBot might not be a great strategy”

Worth looking into, IMO, so watch the vid or read the article.

→ The great clappening came for Forbes Marketplace. Since Google refuses to let the site reputation abuse policy dole out algorithmic penalties, sure looks like this will be a manual penalty.

→ Also from SERoundtable, it’s worth noting that even guys who aren’t afraid to carry water for Google are saying that September “may have been one of the most volatile Google Search ranking months ever” and that we “ actually may be at the longest period of Google Search volatility in history at this point.”

Good times.

AI Insight 🤖

→ As Microsoft is still figuring out ads for Copilot, two new generative AI features just dropped: diagnostics and performance snapshot. According to Microsoft, “Copilot ads have click through rates that are 69% stronger, and conversion rates are 76% higher when comparing lower funnel ad types to traditional search.”

→ Bing’s own SGE, an AI-powered search for complex queries (aka the “Deep search” button), is now available in Beta for US users and is looking for feedback.

→ If you’re looking for something a little more thought-provoking re: AI, this video - How AI Theft is Killing Free Speech - should do the trick. The argument is that if we continue to let AI companies steal the work of professional writers, journalists, writers, creators, etc., "our collective discourse is going to be severely constrained.”

→ After completing a $6.6 billion fund-raising deal, OpenAI is officially being valued at $157B.

Social Media Round-up📲

→ If your social media strategy hasn’t started taking YouTube Shorts seriously, here are some data-driven reasons why you should change your strategy:

- viewed over 70 billion times every day
- average engagement rate is 5.91%
- average RPM is $0.05-$0.07

FWIW — 50-60 seconds long is the sweet spot for Shorts and the best time to post them is 6-10 pm, preferably on Mondays & Tuesdays.

→ Is a Reddit civil war coming soon? Here’s a look at all the stops Reddit pulling out to “make sitewide protests basically impossible.”

Article of the Week: “11 Affiliate Marketers Share Proven Tips for 2024”

This Ahrefs piece is like an affiliate marketing all-star team, with tons of advice being given. Here are a few that stand out:

- @NicheSiteLady says: “My number one tip for affiliate marketers is to pick up the phone and build relationships with the affiliate managers of the brand you promote. Or even better, meet them in real life if you can.”

- Gael Breton says: “I’d say my tip for affiliate marketers is to not burn all your bullets right off the bat but actually make promotion tools feel special.”

- Niels Zee says: “For too long people are just focusing on traffic and now we’re being attacked from left and right. It’s important to stay close to the money. By being on top of your numbers you’ll be back in control, instead of being thrown around by Google.”

All 11 have smart things to say, and the best thing about the article is that for each piece of advice, there’s a comprehensive “How To Do It” section that actually helps you put these ideas into practice.

The Future of SEO

It’s tough to know exactly what 2025 holds for SEO. Take a look at this and LMK if you’ve got a prediction.

Jacky Chou​
Founder of Indexsy
hello@indexsy.com
Let's Connect on Twitter👇

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